Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I must admit I’m still trying to keep up with the plot here. The storyline changes faster than a streaming series that got renewed before the writers finished the script.

For a while we were told that the administration’s tough immigration policy was focused on “the worst of the worst.” You know, hardened criminals, gang leaders, international masterminds—the kind of people who apparently also hold steady landscaping jobs and show up for the 6 a.m. shift at construction sites.

Now Kristen is gone (apparently sacrificed to the political optics gods for making the boss look bad), but the messaging remains: don’t worry, everything is under control because the raids are only targeting the worst criminals imaginable.

Which is fascinating timing, because the Supreme Court of the United States has just told the Internal Revenue Service that handing over immigrant taxpayer address data may have violated the law—hundreds of times, reportedly. The same information then helps U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement locate people.

Now I’m not a legal scholar, but I’m trying to follow the logic.

On one hand, we are told these people are dangerous criminals. On the other hand, the government seems to have located many of them by… checking tax records.

Tax records.

Apparently the modern criminal mastermind is someone who wakes up at 5 a.m., goes to work, files a tax return, and dutifully sends money to the federal government every April.

Somewhere along the way we skipped over the part where hardened villains are known for carefully reporting income to the IRS.

It also complicates a classic political stereotype. Remember the old standby: the “lazy immigrant living off welfare”? That image gets a little blurry when the same people are being picked up at their workplaces after paying taxes that help fund the very government arresting them.

So now the narrative requires a bit of mental gymnastics:

They’re lazy freeloaders… who somehow maintain steady jobs… while also paying federal taxes… but are still apparently the “worst of the worst.”

That’s quite a résumé.

In fact, if paying taxes and showing up to work qualifies someone as a top-tier criminal threat, a lot of Americans might want to start checking their own status. Because by that standard, the real danger to the nation appears to be people with W-2 forms.

But don’t worry. The messaging is clear: this is all about law and order.

Except for the part where the court says the law might have been violated.

But other than that, perfectly clear. 👏